KRAM-StuFf

Early 70s Fan History panel, 2019 at Continuum 15

SF Fandom in first half of the 1970s

Leigh Edmonds introduces the topic, SF Fandom in the first half of the 1970s, and panel: Rob Gerrand, Robin Johnson and Bruce Gillespie.

 
The Panel: Robin, Bruce, Rob and Leigh (Photo: Cath Ortlieb) 

Leigh started by asking about the development of professional SF writing in Australia (2:25): Rob talked on the Easter 1974 writer’s workshop and the 1975 LeGuin Workshop;
Robin on the need for a workshop to lure LeGuin (4:58);
Bruce on LeGuin’s requirements and who turned up… (7:06)
and Rob on the Workshop itself (8:31) .

There was a discussion about the lack of a publishing industry in Australia by Bruce & Rob (9:35);
Rob talked about end of ASFR and material handed on to Bruce (11:00), Norstrilia Press & The Altered Eye (12:00)

Robin spoke on New Year’s Con 1970 in Sydney, John Ryan and Panel by Panel (12:30) and The Syncon 70 discussion about world con (14:17).

Discussion about the Antifan Strikes Back movie by Rob and Robin (15:15)
Bruce on why we were bidding for the world con (17:00);
Leigh on the slan shack (17:25),
Publishing fanzines to plug the world con - Bruce (19:05)
John Bangsund’s importance discussed by Leigh (21:00).
Leigh asked about new fan groups outside Melbourne (21:45),
Fans in Adelaide mentioned by Marc Ortlieb from the audience (23:40).

An appreciative audience: Terry Frost, Janice Murray,
Jenny Brice, Roman Orszanski and Marc Ortlieb.
Thanks to Cath Ortlieb for her kind permission to use the photo.

SpaceAge opening:
Bruce on importance of SpaceAge (25:30);
Rob on the role of Merv Binns (27:29)
and the Fantasy Film Society (28:27),
and the beginning of media fandom in Aus (29:30).

Leigh noted the appearance of women! at SF conventions (30:00),
Talk moved to the critical side of SF — Leigh, Bruce (32:05);
Lem, Foyster and Exploding Madonna (33:50),
and the influence of George Turner (35:27).

Leigh asked about DUFF and fan funds (36:55),
then discussion of slan shacks, Magic Pudding’ Club — Robin & Bruce (36:55);

Bruce noted the importance of Jack Chalker & the Anti fan film (40:30).
Discussion about the delegation to the TORCON bidding (41:15) by Bruce.

Finally, Leigh invited the panel to talk about their favourite memories from this time (43:33).

John Wik, Wolverine and Danny the Street

We discuss several movies... and a TV show

Sixies SF fandom History panel from Continuum 14

Here’s the recording of the Fandom in the 60’s panel at Continuum 14, minimal editing.

After a bit of faffing around with the recording mikes, Leigh Edmonds introduced the panel:
Lee Harding, Rob Gerrand, Bill Wright and Leigh Edmonds (moderator).

Leigh started by asking Lee to describe the state if SF in the sixties (1:46), and the
embargo on American imports (2:11). Lee talked about Operation Fantast (2:35), American fanzines (3:47) and what it was like to get published (5:54).

Rob Gerrand talked about The New Wave (1967), Aldiss, and his reaction to Barefoot in the Head. (12:33) Lee noted that they received proof pages of Cryptozoic from Brian Aldiss (13:03), and went on to
discuss media fandom — basically movies and TV (14:20) and commented on SF, fans and racism. (15:34)

Leigh invited Bill to talk about the sixties, and he discussed ANZAPA, fanzines (16:47) and how SF
liberated us from restrictive 60’s culture (18:45).

Lee noted the influence of Foyster, Baxter and Barrett (20:43) and discussed the effect of
Foyster, Binns and SpaceAge. There was some discussion of the first convention (23:44),
then Lee talked about John Foyster (24:20), and Bill chimed in with his thoughts on John (25:14).

Rob discussed the influence of ASFR (25:59), and noted the influence of SF clubs at uni,
noting Damien Broderick’s editorship of Lot’s Wife (29:11).

They discussed the 68 con (29:31), then Leigh pulled them back to discuss the 1966 nation (30:32).
Rob talked about the Fantasy Film Society (32:55), and Bill noted the hazards of super 8, 16mm and nitrate films (33:40).

Lee noted the point of ASFR and the introduction of John Bangsund to SF (35:18), and Rob noted the role of Cassells in introducing George Turner and John Bangsund (38:34). Turner gets involved in reviewing and tears apart a piece on Alfred Bester’s novel (39:28).

Lee talks about Penguin and publishing Australian science fiction (40:04).
Bruce Gillespie comments from the audience about continuing reluctance to publish SF (41:42).
Bill talks about ASFR (43:10). Some discussion about collating SF Commentary from Lee (45:07).

The Captain Marvel movie

We all caught the film, but opinions vary...

 

Hellboy redux

Katherine and Roman discuss the interesting reboot of Hellboy.

 

An unexpected delight

I think we were all surprised by the Aquaman movie...

 

The End of Times

It's been a while since we managed to meet for a podcast session. We thought we'd talk about movies, so what better place to start than Avengers: Endgame?

 

We mentioned a timeline (useful to keep time branches straight); we enjoyed the one by E Byron Nelson, who notes

My Comprehensive A:E Time Travel Plot Diagram

This diagram includes every jump out and jump in point on all the timelines. In my analysis, there are five (edit: six with Hawkeye's) parallel timelines after A:E, including one in which Thanos, Gamora, and Nebula vanished in 2014 and never returned; one in which Frigga may not have been killed; one in which Loki escaped with the Tesseract in 2012; and one in which Steve Rogers reappeared in the 1950's, perhaps subsequently marrying Peggy Carter and foiling the plot by Hydra to infiltrate Shield.

View the full diagram at https://imgur.com/d8jfzJO

 

Ecocide as a criminal offense

In part two of my 2014 interview with Polly Higgins, we start by talking bout why ecocide should be a criminal, rather than civil matter.

Books:
Eradicating Ecocide: Laws and Governance to Prevent the Destruction of our Planet 
— www.eradicatingecocide.com/books
Earth is our Business: Changing the Rules of the Game
— www.earthisourbusiness.com

See Ecocide Act: http://eradicatingecocide.com/overview/ecocide-act/

Sadly, Polly Higgens died of an aggressive cancer on Easter Sunday this year, a couple of months after the diagnosis.
Her work continues via the Earth Protectors (https://www.stopecocide.earth/ecocide)

Ecocide: International Crime Against Peace

Polly Higgins was a Scottish barrister, who left her career as a corporate lawyer to focus on environmental advocacy, and unsuccessfully lobbied the United Nations Law Commission to recognise ecocide as an international crime.

Ecocide had been proposed as one of the international crimes against peace in 1996, but failed to be included in the final Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Higgins started to campaign for its inclusion around 2009, when the Rome statue was being reviewed.
I had the great pleasure of interviewing her in 2014.

We shared a pot of tea, sat on my patio on a warm summer’s day, and discussed why ecocide wasn't adopted as an international crime.

 

BZE's Electrifying Industry report

Roman spoke to Venessa Petrie, CEO of Beyond Zero Emissions, and Michael Lord, author of their new report, Electrifying industry. They were in town for the Adelaide launch of the report.

You can download this report, and earlier ones, from the BZE website: http://bze.org.au